Puleen Patel

Crappy Day

Overall this week was pretty easy going, travelled to ATL (as usual) but work wise things are pretty good. Although can’t say the same about the rental car experience and the flight back from ATL to YYZ today. Both experiences made me furious at Avis and Air Canada.

It all started with Monday evening, the rental car that I had apparently died and most likely because I (might have) left the lights on throughout the day. It was good that a co-worker also rented a car, so we could get back to the hotel with him. The next morning the roadside assistance guy came by to jump the car and all was good. Tuesday night the other coworker left to go back home. Wednesday morning and again the rental car battery was dead. This is a 2006 Dodge Stratus, go figure. We decided to leave the car at the hotel, and take the hotel shuttle to work and back in the evening. Made another call in the evening to roadside assistance and someone came out around 11pm to jump the car again and yet again all was good. Then comes thursday morning, this is the day when I am flying out on the 8pm flight back home. Tried the car, and guess what, it was DEAD AGAIN! So I decide to go to work, call roadside assistance as well as Avis and explain to them that this is unacceptable. You cannot have a car that dies three times in five days, they need to swap the car and give me a car that will take me to the airport in the evening.

Someone from Avis goes out to the hotel and replaces the car, so now they’ve left a 2007 Chevrolet Malibu. When we got to the hotel around 4pm, we had our fingers crossed that the car works, because neither my coworker nor me were going to miss the last flight out of Atlanta to Toronto. It all turned out good, and we got to the airport well in time.

But the fun doesn’t end there!

Out flight was to leave at 8:10pm, but the plane did not arrive from Toronto until about that time. So we are delayed by 20-30 minutes, not a big deal. We all board the plane and all is well. My reservation was an Executive First Class, but they had downgraded the plane and as a result there was no Executive cabin, so when I board the plane I am surprised, they ropped me off. When I checked in they did not mention this to me, had I know that this had happened, I would have downgraded my fare to economy. Why would I knowingly pay for First Class seat when there was no First Class seating available on the aircraft? Air Canada is down right silly and stupid.

But the fun still is not over yet. We are all boarded and ready to leave the gate, and then comes the announcement that there is a misalignment in one of the computer/navigation systems and the pilot has to reset the navigation systems. This involves having to turn the entire plane off, start it again and then wait about 14-15 minutes for the problem to resolve itself. And we are assured that these steps are normal for such a situation. No big deal, they know what they are doing. So all the passengers as tired, frustrated and hot as they are, bear the heat and the narrow seats and tough it out for a bit. Then comes another announcement that the problem still persists, and they will try it a few more times. Which they do. So we are sitting there for another 30-45 minutes.

Eventually the systems are all back to normal and we take off around 9:45. Note the original flight time was 8:10pm but we didn’t get off the gate until about 9:45pm, great service! We get to Toronto pretty much without any problems, some minor turbulence here and there, nothing else out of the ordinary. We get to the gate and there are no staff at the gate, so we have to wait another 10-15 minutes.

All in all, by the time I got home it was 2am. Left from Atlanta at 4pm, got home at 2pm, 10 hours of travel time. One of the main reasons why travelling gets to me is because of situations and problems like these.

So now here I am excited to be working from home for the next couple of weeks, and hopefully enjoy some time at home doing things that I missed out on doing for the past insane 5-6 weeks of working endlessly like a dog.

And that brings my rant to an end!

Cheers!